Managing stakeholder relationships is a central task of public affairs officers. Building trusting and long-term relationships with political decision-makers can be the decisive success factor for setting goals for your efforts. That is why we support your stakeholder management with tools to reduce the time needed and to enable project success.
Below you will find five tips for successful stakeholder management.
1. Identification of relevant stakeholders
In order to meet the challenges of successful stakeholder communication, the first step is to conduct basic research to identify the stakeholders relevant to the project.
A crucial question that you should answer early on: Which persons, groups of persons or organisations will be affected by the implementation of a regulation or a law? Which stakeholders can influence the outcome of the process?
The result of the stakeholder identification is a – ideally well-structured – list of all stakeholders, which can serve as a basis for the qualified stakeholder analysis.
Stakeholders who are important for the project can be found almost everywhere. In particular, stakeholders are of interest who have already taken up the subject of regulation in the past, have expressed a position on it or are likely to have it on the agenda in the future.
Social media is an excellent way to identify the stakeholders involved. The result of your stakeholder research would be a list of relevant stakeholders.
An efficient procedure for stakeholder identification is the use of PANALIS Monitoring. Via the large stakeholder search engine, all public contributions from stakeholders, regardless of the source, are indexed and analysed and automatically assigned to your specific topics.
EAn efficient procedure for stakeholder identification is the use of PANALIS Monitoring. Via the large stakeholder search engine, all public contributions from stakeholders, regardless of the source, are indexed and analysed and automatically assigned to your specific topics.
2. Communication strategy
Your stakeholder list can be categorised and prioritised in the further process. For this purpose, the positions and objectives of the stakeholders can be analysed and assigned to a suitable communication strategy. The creation of stakeholder maps provides you with an overview of the target group-specific information and thus makes it clear which message you want to convey.
To simplify matters, the stakeholders are divided into three different groups: The group of the positively and negatively inclined as well as the group of the undecided. Ideally, you should first focus on the group of undecided stakeholders. Of course, you will invest the most time resources in the group of negatively minded persons and organisations. For this reason, it is recommended to consider this group last.
A network analysis can also be informative in order to make the relationships between the stakeholders visible.
Learn how you can create individual stakeholder mappings with PANALIS Monitoring in just a few minutes in a webinar or in an online briefing.
3. Establishing and maintaining the relationship
This part is probably one of the most important phases of your communication strategy. A successful stakeholder management strategy includes a transparent line of communication with your stakeholders.
You should also have thought about the possible communication channels and carefully consider the format in which you want to convey your information.
All kinds of information can be recorded in PANALIS Monitoring. Use numerous note and management functions so that you can access it later.
4. Stay informed
Continuous monitoring enables the presentation of deadlines for action and an analysis of changes in regulations and the associated changes to your communication strategy.
Other stakeholders may also discover the topic for themselves. It is advisable to update your stakeholder analysis regularly.
Different information channels and a carefully selected monitoring system can significantly increase your work efficiency and help you not to miss any information.
Innovative policy monitoring is characterised by a high degree of automation and identifies the publications and stakeholders relevant to you on a topic- and industry-specific basis. This enables time-saving monitoring.
5. Use a professional stakeholder management software
The digital transformation has led to most companies and organisations abandoning the analogue variant.
The use of professional software is essential for the implementation of your qualified communication strategy. Public affairs officers encounter many stakeholders and need a management tool to keep track of current developments. In addition, the responsibilities of your stakeholders as well as your own areas of responsibility change from time to time, so that without the use of a professional solution, important information would be lost within your organisation if it is not filed.
With PANALIS Monitoring and its integrated Stakeholder Management solutions, internal and external meetings can be organised productively and all information can be recorded in one central place.
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